Prodigy
by Fred Andrew Oakster
Summary: When the Dursleys cast out their 1 year old nephew, he was taken in by a group of Unspeakables. Growing up knowing of the Prophecy and with no magical restrictions to hold him back, a new world opens itself up to Harry as he enters Hogwarts, makes new friends and learns that things aren't always what they seem like at first glance.
1. Whatever Lies Beyond This Morning

**A/N: **_Hello HP fans! This is my new story, Prodigy. It is not related in any way to any of my other works, but hopefully it will be the best of them all. I will try to include the best elements from my old popular story, Hidden Prodigy, while at the same time adding new ones. Oh, and... this won't be focused around romance, like HP was. It will be the actual plot that is the focus this time around. I hope you will like it! Enjoy! :)_

**Disclaimer:** I write this purely for my own and your amusement. I don't claim any rights to the characters, the magical world they live in or anything else, other than my own crazy fantasies.

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**Prologue: **Whatever Lies Beyond This Morning

Privet Drive Number 4 in Little Whinging, Surrey. A perfectly normal house in a perfectly normal town. In it lived a perfectly normal family, the Dursleys, that lived a perfectly normal life. At first glance, you would think that you wouldn't find a more normal-looking place anywhere on earth, and the Dursleys took pride in that. Except everything about the Dursleys wasn't normal. There was one thing, one uny-puny little thing that made them stand out from the other almost identical livings that lived on the street, and it wasn't their choice of living curtains. The difference was made by a young boy with raven black hair and green eyes that lived with the family.

Harry Potter was an orphan, the only son of Petunia Dursley's dead sister and said sister's husband. No one knew anything about the boy's parents, because Mrs Dursley never wanted to talk about her sister, who had supposedly died in a car crash. It had been just last week when the entire street woke up to the screaming of Mrs Dursley, who had found her young nephew stranded on her doorstep. Since then, the entire street had been buzzing about the incident and it infuriated both Petunia and her husband, Vernon.

The truth however, was far worse than anyone of their neighbours could ever imagine. Lily and James Potter, Harry's parents, hadn't been killed in a car crash and Petunia knew that all too well, thanks to the letter left behind by a certain Albus Dumbledore. Harry's parents had been murdered. And it wasn't just any murder that had been commited, but a murder done by _magic. _

Mr and Mrs Potter had been magical people and according to Dumbledore's letter, so was Harry. When Vernon got to know the real reason behind his wife's sister's death and the other contents of the letter, he had gone through the roof. The boy couldn't stay here and that was that. He was going to get rid of that _blasted _boy, no matter what the cost.

Petunia herself didn't know what to think. While it was true that she and her sister hadn't been on the best of terms since Lily started at Hogwarts, the school where magical children in Britain went for their education, but she was still her sister and Petunia couldn't help but feel a little at unease knowing that someone had just killed Lily in cold blood. Not to mention that the letter had also mentioned that due to being Lily's sister, there was a risk that the people known as the Death Eaters, the supporters of Lord Voldemort would target her family next.

All in all, Petunia found herself in a tight spot. While she partly felt obligated to take care of the boy because of her connection to Lily, even with how rusty that connection might be, she partly didn't want anything to do with anyhting magical, especially not if it would put her own little Diddykins in harms way.

Diddykins, or Dudley as was his real name, was Petunia's and Vernon's son and Harry's cousin, born just a shortly before Harry himself. In Petunia's eyes, Dudley was the most important thing in the world. He was just perfect and no matter what, she wanted to keep him safe, which in turn led to yet another problem.

According to Professor Dumbledore, having Harry live with them would provide both them and Harry with a protection called a Blood Ward, which would work as some kind of shield against Dark Magic and anyone who meant harm to them. Petunia didn't understand the details, but she understood that having Harry live under their roof could prove beneficial to them. Vernon however, was more sceptical towards this.

"It's all a load of bullshit! A trick to fool us into taking him in!" was his repeated opinion on the supposed Blood Ward.

However, the descision whether or not to keep Harry would soon be taken out of Petunia's hands. It was early afternoon and Petunia was standing by the stove in the kitchen, preparing something for her and Vernon to eat so that it would be ready as soon as her husband arrived home. On the kitchen floor, Dudley and Harry underneath the table so she could keep an eye on them while she was working, though the two boys were occupied with very different things.

Dudley was just chewing on his favourite plush toy, occasionally taking it out of his mouth to wave it around and drizzle some saliva over the clean floor, all the while laughing uncontrollably. Harry on the other hand prefered to remain in a calmer state, allowing his curious green eyes to wander around the room, taking in every bit of it. Petunia could swear that she could see the gears turning in the brain behind those eyes, as if he could actually understand what was happening around him.

'_Just like with Lily.' _she thought as she remembered the look her younger sister used to wear when she was about her son's age.

Those eyes... it was almost creepy how much like Lily's they looked and if Petunia looked too deep into them, she could almost swear that she saw Lily watch her from behind her son's eyes. She definetely wouldn't put it past her dead sister to find a way to haunt her from the afterlife, she was a witch after all.

Petunia was brought out of her musings however, when she heard the door open and close and not too long after, the sound of heavy footsteps making their way towards the kitchen.

"I finally did it!" Vernon Dursley exclaimed as he entered the kitchen and threw himself down in one of the chairs by the table, causing it to squek under his weight.

"Finally did what?" Petunia asked in confusion, turning off the stove and drying her hands on her apron.

Vernon waved her over and motioned for her to take a seat. Petunia cast a look under the table and found that neither Harry nor Dudley seemed to mind at the moment, so she took the chair offered to her and sat down. As soon as she had, Vernon leaned over the table and rested his head against the palms of his hands, that were held up by his elbows resting on the table.

"I finally found one of the freaks," he spit the word as if it was poisoned, "and he promised to take _our_ freak off our hands." as he said this, he kicked Harry who had been a little too close to his feet underneath the table. The boy was quick to scoot away from the offending limb and escaped from his spot underneath the table and left the kitchen.

"What?!" Petunia shrieked in shock. "B-but Vernon, what about the protection Professor Dumbledore spoke of?"

She didn't know what to think or say. All that was running through her head at that moment were the words that Dumbledore had written about her family being a possible target for the Death Eaters and while she admitted she wasn't too keen on downright adopting Harry, she didn't feel too sure that just giving him away was the right thing to do either.

"Hmphf! That old geezer was just talking a load of bull! We're not in danger from any wizards and keeping a little brat sure as hell wouldn't change anything, even if we were!" Vernon growled under his breath and gave Petunia a very sharp look, letting her know that the agreement had already been set.

However, despite her husband reassurance that everything would be alright and that he was doing them a favour by getting rid of the boy, Petunia couldn't help but feel like just sending him away like this was a mistake. And so, it was with mixed feelings and a heavy heart that she watched Vernon walk out the door with a sleeping Harry tossed over his shoulder that very same night, knowing full well that the boy would never return to Privet Drive.

**-HP-**

The park in Little Whinging was empty this late in the night, not a soul being out to see Vernon Dursley making his way through it, looking around as to make sure he wasn't spotted carrying his nephew around like this. There was a cold breeze in the air, almost biting its way through his leather jacket but he didn't turn back or even shudder. It would soon all be over and soon he would be able to return to his normal life without his wife's freakish sister's freak of a son to care for.

"You're late." a cold, deep voice spoke from behind him, causing Vernon to jump in fright.

Behind him, a figure in a black cloak that was flowing in the wind had appered out of nowhere, his hood covering his face in shadows. The figure was standing a few feet away with his arms, because Vernon was certain it was a man judging by the voice, hanging losely at his sides.

"Don't sneak up on me like that, FREAK!" he roared as he regained his composure.

The hooded figure let out an amused chuckled and walked up to him, causing Vernon to tense slightly with unease at the cold and deep chuckling.

"My apologies, Mr Dursley." the figure said, his voice causing Vernon's neckhairs to stand on end. "But I was under the impression that we had an appointed time here to, as you muggles call it, 'seal the deal'?"

While he normally wouldn't have accepted anyone calling him something as stupid as "muggle", something told Vernon that upsetting this particular freak was not a very good idea, so he let it slide, just this once.

"Well, whatever! Just get this little freak off my hands!" he said and promptly rid himself off the baby that had been sleeping in his arms up until now.

The hooded figure held out his arms and accepted the boy with a surprisingly soft touch. As soon as he had the child in his arms, he pulled him closer to study the scar on the boy's forehead. Or well, at least Vernon assumed he was doing that, since he couldn't tell with the man's hood keeping his face hidden in shadows. After a moment of looking at the boy's face, the man looked up at Vernon again.

"I offer my sincerest thanks for this, Mr Dursley. You shall not be regret this." he said and turned around as if he was about to leave. However, as soon as he made a move to leave the park, Vernon spoke up with renewed vigor.

"Hey! Wait just a second there! What about your end of the bargain?!"

Even though Vernon couldn't see it, the man smirked under his hood. '_Mortals were so easy to read.'_ was the only thought that crossed his mind as he turned around to look at Vernon who immeditely took a step back, feeling the cold from before return with the strange man's gaze.

"My end of the bargain? I don't recall making any promises of anything."

"B-but you did!" Vernon exclaimed against his better judgement. "You said that in exchange for the boy..."

However, he didn't get any furhter than that. As he took a careful step forward, all he had time to see was a quick flash of yellow from underneath the man's hood, as the hooded figure raised one of his hands and held out an open palm towards him before he was sent flying backwards. A second later, when the noise of the rushing air had left his ears and he landed in a heap on the ground, the sound of a crackling fire reached his ears and he looked up just in time to see the hooded man disappear in a cloud of black flames. The last thing he saw and heard were the man's glowing yellow eyes staring at him from underneath the dark hood and the sound of the same chuckle that had graced the man's entrance.

**-HP-**

In a room that no one knows or sees, where the laws of space and time are non-existant and truths and lies are mere words, a group of people have gathered in the early morning for a very important matter. Their black cloaks and hoods conceal their identity and for the untrained eye, only one of them stood one from the eternal white that was the room, one of them that was holding an infant child in his arms, the one who stood facing the rest of his group.

_"The Ministry of Magic,"_ he spoke, his voice echoing against walls that wasn't even there. "_are nothing but a group of powerhungry fools. Time and time again, they have attempted to establish equality within our society. And it hasn't worked **one**_**_ time_!**"

His voice rose to a shout as he said the last two words. How the boy in his arms kept on sleeping through his carrier's outburst would forever be beyond the group's members, but they didn't comment on it as their leader continued on.

"_And do you want to know why? Because they don't want it to! By establishing equality, they would lose their own high influence over the world and that is a sacrifice they're not willing to make!_"

As he said this, he freed one of his arms from holding the baby and pulled back his hood, revealing a mane of shoudler lenght white hair, tanned skin and eyes that were practically glowing yellow.

"_But soon, that will change. We, the Unspeakables, will be the ones to break that curse and free society from its shackles of hatred and inequality!_"

Making a pause, he looked down on the boy in his arms that was still snoozing peacefully with his thumb stuck in his mouth, unaware of the great destiny that awaited him. He didn't, but they did. They, the Unspeakables, knew what awaited their new young charge and what lied beyong this morning. So he raised the boy, Harry James Potter, into the air to allow his comrades to get a good look.

"_This child has been prophesised to save us all! To bring peace and order to our world!_"

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**A/N: **_Alright, so a short prologue. The actual chapters will probably be a lot longer than this. Anyway, I hope you found it interesting enough to keep reading and maybe even leave a review telling me what you think?_


	2. The Day of Departure

**A/N: **_What's up, HP fans? Welcome back to Prodigy! This is the first real chapter, since i consider the one you have already read a prologue rather than a chapter. It was short and only gave an overview of how Harry ended up with the Unspeakables known as "The Group", so I consider this the first actual chapter. This is about how long I am trying to make my chapters minimum normally. I usually got a minimum of aorund 6k per chapter, but I won't cut a chapter if I don't feel like it is a good place to end it so they might become a little longer._

_Also, I will put up a poll in my profile, asking **what house Harry should be in** once he reaches Hogwarts! If you got an opinion, make sure to vote!_

_With that, I'm gonna leave you to read the chapter! I really hope you will like it and please tell me what you think!_

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters. Joanne owns all stuff in here that's canon, and I just like to play around in her sandbox, without making any profit from it, just like the kid who dug a hole in the playground sandbox and then cried when he realized he couldn't take the hole with him back home...

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**Chapter One: **The Day of Departure

The sun was slowly rising over the hills, engulfing the Hogwarts grounds in a reddish orange glow that was reflected in the early morning mist. It was a sure sign that autumn was closing in and that a new school year was just around the corner at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Normally, this would excite the teachers, as they looked forward to meeting their new students and befriend what would come to be the next generation (with the possible exception of Professor Snape, who didn't really like any particular student at all). However, this particular year there was a certain tension hanging in the air, casting its shadow over the school staff and even the normally stoic Severus Snape seemed to be more tense than usual.

In his office behind the large stone gargoyle, Professor Albus Dumbledore was pacing back and forth, hands clasped together behind his back. He rarely felt this nervous. Heck, he was rarely nervous at all, but the closer the arrival of this years group of students came, the more restless did he feel. It had now been almost 10 years since that dreadful day when Arabella Figg had contacted him and told him that Harry Potter had gone missing. And today was the day when Harry should arrive at Hogsmeade Station if he was to attend school.

But as it was now, he didn't know what to expect. Maybe that was what made him so uneasy? He usually knew pretty much everything going on in both the school and the wizarding world as a whole, so not knowing something was naturally making him very uncomfortable.

It hadn't passed one day since then that he hadn't cursed his own foolishness for leaving Harry with his relatives. Professor McGonagall had been outraged and would probably have hexed him if Professor Snape hadn't intervened. Of course, that just meant that it was Professor Snape's hex that hit Dumbledore instead of Professor McGonagall's... He hadn't even bothere reprimanding his two teachers for their behavior. In his own eyes, he deserved it. That and so much more for failing so brutally when it mattered the most.

He had practically turned heaven and earth upside down in search of the boy but had come up with a blank. The only thing he had learned was what Mr Dursley had told him: that Harry had been taken away by a man in a black cloak and that didn't say very much, considering that cloaks and robes were a customary attire for wizards. It could have been any random wizard or witch that took him. What was worse, he had no way of locating him. The device he had linked to the Blood Ward to make sure that everything worked as planned had deactivated as soon as they lost sight of Harry and with it, so had the machine that was supposed to meassure his health and make sure he was well taken care off. It was as if he had just completely vanished from the face of the earth.

'_Well,'_ Albus thought, '_at least I know for sure that Harry wasn't taken by the Death Eaters. There's just no way that any Death Eater would kill the famous Harry Potter and not make a huge fuss about it.'_

While that thought was a little bit comforting, it also begged the question as to who had actually taken Harry? A black cloak wasn't really a lead and even if it had been a very distinct cloak, Dumbledore couldn't for the life of him think of anyone particular who would be known for wearing a black cloak.

His trail of thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on his door. Stopping his pacing, Dumbledore looked up and called "Come in!" to whoever was standing on the other side, which turned out to be Professor McGonagall.

"My dear Minerva, to what do I owe the honor?" Dumbledore asked and held his hand out, silently offering a chair to his Transfiguration teacher.

Professor McGonagall accepted the chair offered, giving off a tired sigh of relief as she sat down in the chair. Albus went over to sit opposite to her, wandlessly summoning a plush armchair for himself to use. Studying his Deputy Headmistress, he noticed that she had dark shadows under her eyes and that her normally so well kept hair was just roughly tucked in a pale image of her usual hairbum. To anyone who was at least remotely familiar with her otherwise strict personality, it would be obvious that Minerva McGonagall was currently not in a very good state.

"Albus... do you think he will be on the train? I... I couldn't sleep, because I was so nervous for today. What if he doesn't show up?"

Hearing the question that he knew everyone was asking themselves, Dumbledore sighed and leaned back in his armchair. Suddenly, he felt just as old as he in fact was, something that wasn't usually the case.

"I honestly don't know, Minerva. We can only hope for the best." Dumbledore answered grimly.

He didn't want to think about the possibility that Harry wouldn't turn up at Hogwarts today, because he didn't know what he could do if he didn't. Where was he supposed to look? The Ministry of Magic wouldn't just let it pass that Harry Potter had disappeared without a trace. So far, they had been quiet because they trusted Dumbledore when he said that Harry would turn up for Hogwarts this year, but if he didn't do that then what?

For a moment, none of the two Professors uttered a word. The silence was hanging in the air like a heavy cloud over their heads. Dumbledore was desperately trying to come up with something to say to try and make the situation seem more bearable, and had just opened his mouth to say something when a suddenly something strange happened.

In the air between them, a sudden burst of fire erupted out of thin air and quickly expanded outwards. Professor McGonagall shrieked in shock and surprise and sprung to her feet, wand raised and at the ready. Dumbledore didn't shriek or pull out his wand, but he was quickly on his feet. Flame Travel? It was the only thing he could think of as of right now that would cause fire to erupt without warning like this. But Fawkes was already safely sitting on his crossbar, snoozing peacefully... Was it another phoenix? But why would a random phoenix just decide to appear in his office?

He got his answer a second later when the flames dispersed to reveal, not a bird, but a man standing where the flames had been ragind just a moment ago. Dumbledore blinked in confusion. What?

"Who are you?!" Professor McGonagall called the moment the flames died down, her wand aimed at the man's chest.

The man, covered from head to toe in a very distinct black cloak with his hood covering his face, groaned at the welcoming he got and turned away, scratching the back of his hood in irritation.

"Stupid Leader, I swear one day I'll curse him half way to hell." he muttered under his breath. He was obviously talking to himself, but Dumbledore and McGonagall could hear every word of it. "Easy mission his says and not 2 seconds after I arrive I got a wand pointed at me."

While he was still shocked at the man's sudden appearence, not to mention his way of transportation, Dumbledore couldn't help but become curious at the man's words. Mission? And who was this "Leader" he was talking about?

"Maybe if you didn't flame into people's office without a warning, they would be more at ease around you?" Dumbledore suggested while studying the man with interest.

Hearing Dumbledore's voice, the man seemed to remember where he was and turned back towards Professor McGonagall, who tightened her grip on her wand, and Professor Dumbledore, who seemed abnormaly relaxed, considering someone had just used an unknown method of transportation to get into his office without any trouble and appeared in front of his face out of thin air.

"Ah, my apologies, Professors." he said and raised his hands and lowered his hood, revealing a surprisingly young face that had a thatch of blonde hair on top of his head and a tired look in his blue eyes. "The name's Marco. Or well, that's what they call me anyway. I'm here talk to you about a very... important matter."

As he said the last part, he pointed at Dumbledore with a gloved finger, as if he wanted to make sure who it was he wanted to talk to. Professor McGonagall, suddenly wide awake again, wrinkled her nose in disgust at the man's calm and disrespectful gesture. In her mind, anyone who randomly apparated (or in this case, Flame Travelled) into someone's private domains, only to ignore the owner of the domain and then just point at them rudely was not someone she would get a long with.

Dumbledore however, was intruiged.

"And what might this "important matter" be?" he asked.

Marco yawned lazily and stretched his arms into the air, causing Professor McGonagall's patience to wear thin at how laid back and unprofessional the man acted, despite claiming to be here to discuss important matters. However, when he had lowered his arms and seemed to have woken up a little better, a twinkle went through Marco's clear blue eyes and he grinned at the two professors as he answered.

"Harry Potter."

**-HP-**

Harry hadn't known what to expect when he had been dropped off by one of the Group's members close to King's Cross Station, but it sure hadn't been to be stranded with no idea of what to do. Oh, he knew where he was supposed to go and what he was supposed to do, but he hadn't known that the platform would be hidden. Why didn't anyone tell him these things?

Sighing, Harry jumped off the trolley he had been sitting at while considering his options. He would guess that it had been the objective of the one who dropped him off here to tell him how to get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, but considering that it was Number Twelve who had dropped him off, he wasn't surprised that he had "forgotten" to mention it. He and Number Twelve had never gotten along too well and it would be just like him to just ditch Harry here with no way of knowing where he was going to make him look bad.

Of course, the guy wasn't named Number Twelve but that was what people within the Group called him. The Group were a group of Unspeakables, 12 to be exact, that were coded by number. Unspeakables were wizards or witches who worked at the Department of Mysteries within the Ministry of Magic, to explore the boundaries of magic and seek answers to the many questions that still lingered around what people called "magic". However, this particular group was a little bit special.

For starters, they didn't have the ordinary codenames that Unspeakables had, but went with numbers instead, ranging from One to Twelve with Number One being their leader. That was another difference from normal Unspeakables too, they had a clear leader. Normally, all Unspeakables worked directly under the Ministry of Magic, answering only to the Minister himself, but this little faction had their own leader. Not officially of course, since that would be against the Ministry's principles, but a chosen leader nonetheless.

As Harry made his way around the station in search of anything that looked wizarding-like, he thought about how strange it would feel to live an almost normal life from this point on. He knew that growing up with Unspeakables was about as far from normal as it could get, so he was curious about how it would feel to live with other people his age. Truth to be told, he had never interracted with someone even close to him in age. Sure, the Group's Number Two, Marco, looked like he was still around 20 years old, but his physical age and his actual age were two entirerly different things. While Marco may look young, Harry knew that he was a lot older than he appeared to the human eye.

'_Why couldn't Marco have been the one to drop me off instead?' _Harry thought grumpily. Marco was way nicer than Number Twelve, not to mention that Marco was the only one that Harry had an actual name to place his face along with. The Group was very secretitive and preferred to not reveal anything personal about themselves, especially not to Harry since he wasn't an actual member yet. Marco had been the one put in charge of Harry's well being, so the two of them had some connection, but for the most part Harry had been left to fend for himself, being allowed to roam the halls of the Department of Mystries as long as he didn't go through any of the doors that led to strange and possibly dangerous places. When he had gotten older, he had been allowed to come with Marco at times during "missions", but it hadn't been anything too exciting, mainly reconnaisance missions.

Well, he could think about that later. For now, he had to find his way to Platform Nine and Three Quarters before the clock hit 11 or he would be left behind. Scratching the back of his head as he pushed his trolley in front of him, Harry went over what he knew in his head. The train would depart from Platform Nine and _Three_ _Quarters_, so naturally it had to be something around Platform Nine that would be the key to finding the platform. He also knew that supposedly a lot of people went to Hogwarts, so that meant that a lot of wizards and witches passed where the hidden portal had to be, which he guessed had to be around the Platforms Nine and Ten.

'_So technically,'_ Harry thought to himself, '_my best bet is to seek out Platforms Nine and Ten and hope that a wizarding family drops by.'_

Having a plan to act with, Harry felt a lot better and he felt his eagerness from earlier this morning return as he came to a stop by the barrier that separated Platforms Nine and Ten. Now, all he had to do was wait and hopefully someone would show up. And he didn't have to wait long before his prayers were answered.

Only 3 minutes after he had taken his place beside the barrier, waiting for a possible wizarding family to walk by, a group of red haired people came strolling down the platform. First came a chubby red haired woman, who was undoubtly the one leading the group. By her side, a small red haired girl strolled, followed by a group of 4 red haired boys, 2 of which looked almost identical.

"...always crowded with muggles." Harry heard the woman say. "I don't understand why they can't find a better way to send children off to Hogwarts! One of these days someone will get spotted! Now, which platform is this?"

"This is platform Nine, so we just have to go through the barrier!" the little girl piped up. "Mum, can't I go..."

"You're not old enough yet, Ginny. Now be quiet!" the woman answered, before she began to usher her sons forward towards the barrier between the platforms Nine and Ten.

While Harry was intruiged watching the red haired boys go through the barrier, he found himself deeply interested in their group's interractions. So this was a family? It looked nice enough. Harry had never had a family, nor had he been let out of the Department too many times to see any so this was something new. Sure, one could argue that The Group was his family, but none of them had really been that close personally to Harry. The closest thing to anything parental Harry had ever had was Marco, The Group's second in command, but he hardly counted.

Seeing the girl and her mother go through the barrier after the four boys had all gone through, Harry snapped out of his thoughts and jumped off his trolley and began pushing it towards the barrier. If there wasn't any secret password or anything of the kind he needed, he should be good by just walking straight through the brick wall. From what he had seen, that was all the redheads had done, so it was worth a try.

Taking a deep breath, Harry aimed his trolley right and pushed forward, slowly in order to avoid suspiscion. When he reached the barrier, he swallowed and braced himself in case it didn't work and he collided with the wall. However, he hadn't need to worry. His trolley went straight through the barrier and for a moment, Harry's view was obscurred by complete darkness before he appeared on what looked like a completely different platform.

Harry gasped as he looked around at all the people. There were so many of them! Never before had Harry seen this many people in one place before! Everywhere where he looked, there were people who were doing something. Talking with each other, boarding the train, struggling with their trolleys, laughing, saying goodbye to their parents...

Completely gobsmacked and mesmerized by the sight of so many people, Harry failed to keep his eyes where he was going and...BUMP! He accidently pushed his trolley into someone, which resulted in a high-pitched "Ouch!" from the unlucky person and a low "Thump!" when said person, Harry guessed it was a girl, hit the ground. Embarrassed by his own mistake and afraid that the girl might have gotten hurt, Harry let go of his trolley and hurried around it to check on her.

It turned out that the little red haired girl, Ginny he was pretty sure her mother had called her, hadn't followed her family when she had come through the barrier and instead just stopped in her tracks on the other side.

"I'm sorry! I didn't see you there!" Harry apologized and quickly checked her over for any sign of injury.

Marco had taught him that if someone got hurt, it was important to identify where that person was hurt, how bad it was and what kind of injury he or she had recieved. Applying this basic course of action, Harry quickly found that the impact from the trolley hadn't done much to hurt Ginny, but during the fall she had landed and bruised her right knee.

Ginny however, didn't seem to notice her bruised knee at first and simply dried the tear that had formed in her eye and shook her head, causing her shoulder lenght red hair to flow around her like flames, an effect that was amplified by the sunlight from the late morning sun reflecting itself in her hair.

"I-I'm okay. It's fine." she gasped as the pain in her knee finally settled in when she moved it in an attempt to stand back up. "I... I shouldn't have stopped like that, it was my fault."

Taking a closer look at her bruise, Harry frowned. It wasn't a very bad injury, but he knew from experience that hitting your knee against concrete or something hard at all could really hurt. However, that didn't mean that the bruise or injury was serious. That was something else Marco had taught him. The amount of pain one feels isn't nescesarily giving a fair reflection of how serious the actual injury is, it only shows that the spot that was hit or got injured was closely connected to the nerve system. The bruise on Ginny's knee didn't look too bad, but she was still obviously in pain from it so she must have hit a nerve.

"That looks like it hurts." Harry stated while he considered what he could do to make it feel better. He had bruised his own knees a few times and tried to remember what Marco usually did when that happened. He remembered one time when he had been given a bag of ice to press against the part that hurt, because apparently cold would ease the pain slightly. However, he quickly dismissed that thought, since he didn't have anything icy on his person or in his trunk. Or anything cold at all for that matter either.

"I'm fine!" Ginny tried to protest and stubbornly made another attempt to stand, but her leg denied her that yet again and she fell back to the ground.

Harry gave her a concerned look and tried to think of anything he could do to help her. He didn't know any magic that would help, at least none that he could perform and was legal. Truth to be told, none of the magic he knew for sure he could perform was legal... Well, Parseltongue wasn't downright illegal, but Marco had specifically told him not to use that in public or he would be classified as a Dark Wizard by those who saw it and those who heard it.

"Wait, just sit still. I'll get you something that should help." he said and after Ginny gave a reluctant nod, Harry stood up and opened his trunk.

Long ago, Marco had told Harry to always think before he packed a bag. If something important came up and he might need something, like a wand, a bandage or something for an emergency, it would always be easier and quicker to find if it was lying at the top. So when packing his trunk, Harry had made sure to have the stuff he would most likely need the least at the bottom and worked his way up, meaning that his wand, his First Aid kit and some other important stuff was lying directly underneath the top of his trunk.

"What's that?" Ginny perked up when she noticed Harry digging through his little bag of emergency articles.

"First Aid." was all Harry said, as he tried to find the bandages and the painkiller.

However, his search was interrupted by a strange sound, one that wasn't very familiar to him. He had heard it before once or twice when Marco had taken him out to go on missions. It was this strange, soft cling that seemed to come from Ginny. What was it Marco had called it? Oh, right! Giggling...

"What's so funny?"

"Don't you think you're overdoing it just a little now?" Ginny said, her voice suddenly a lot more relaxed than it had been just a few moments ago, as if the pain had already begun to subside. "It's just a little scratch, nothing serious. I don't need medical attention for that."

Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion and glanced at the wound. Well, it didn't look too bad, but she had seemed so hurt just a minute ago... Had he missed something? Marco had taught him to always take injuries seriously and that the level of pain displayed or felt wasn't always reflecting the amount of damage that had been done.

"Uhm... okay, if you say so." Harry said awkwardly and put the bandages back in the bag before he returned it to his trunk.

A silence engulfed them while Harry closed his trunk and went back to check on Ginny's knee again. She had stopped struggling after seeing Harry's reaction to her injured knee and was just sitting there, studying the strange boy who had accidently run into her with his trolley and then reacted as if she had been hit with a Dark Curse or something.

"Soo... My name's Ginny! What's yours?" she asked, curious about who he was.

Relieved that the slight tension was broken, Harry was quick to answer.

"I'm Harry!"

Ginny smiled at him and took a deep breath before pushing herself off the ground again. Harry was just about to call out to her not to strain her knee again but to his surprise, she got all the way up into a standing position this time. Seeing her standing in her full height, Harry couldn't help but notice that she was unbelievably short. He hadn't thought about it before when he had seen her on the other side of the barrier, but she was actually almost an entire head shorter than he himself was.

"See? No big deal!" Ginny smiled at him. Then, she cast a look behind Harry towards the barrier. "We should get going, so we don't block the path. We don't want any more accidents, do we?"

Harry just nodded and stood up from his crouching position. Agreeing completely and berating himself for forgetting that they were actually still sitting in front of the barrier, Harry grabbed his trolley and began pushing it down the platform, with Ginny following close behind. Not too long after, Ginny spotted her family in the crowd and said good bye to Harry before hurrying over to her worried mother. Harry looked after her for a moment, before shrugging and turning back to he train, that was about to leave in a good 15 minutes.

That sure had been an odd meeting. Harry knew that he was very bad in social conversations, as he hadn't had many of them during his upbringing. The Group usually weren't the most social of people and outside of them, Harry really didn't interract a lot with other humans and preferred to just stay in the Department to study something of interest. Marco of course had taken him out a few times for some fresh air, but that was pretty much all. And just the fact that Marco was the only member of The Group that had practically raised him that Harry had an actual name to go with spoke volumes of how close he was to the other members...

Hopefully, he could learn to fit in once he got to Hogwarts. He knew that in time, he would be needed to do something for the world, he had been told that much by The Leader, but that didn't mean that he couldn't live a normal life right now, right? At least, he didn't hope it would. He would give anything to actually meet somone whom he could become real friends with.

**-HP-**

Albus Dumbledore leaned back in his armchair and sighed with relief. At his side, Professor McGonagall mirrored his actions. Harry was alright and healthy and he would be coming to Hogwarts this evening. Hearing that made the two professors feel 10 years of worry and tension over the boy they had thought they lost slowly leave their system.

Up above them, sitting on the higher ground of the office, the black cloaked man, Marco nodded in confirmation and watched the two professors calm themselves down. The initial hostility that Professor McGonagall had shown towards him wasn't gone, but right now she was too relieved to hear that Harry was alright to care about the, in her opinion, disrespectful man who had flamed into the headmasters office without an invitation.

Marco sighed and scratched the back of his head as he checked the time using the clock that was hanging in the office. It was just past 11, so Harry should be on the train by now if everything had gone smoothly. Of course, nothing ever went smoothly when Harry was paired up with Number Twelve, but he figured that even that tension couldn't mess something as simple as dropping the kid off at a train station. Though he would never admit it to the other members of the Group, Marco would actually miss the little guy. He hadn't been too happy when the Leader first assigned him to be the boy's baby-sitter, but Harry had really grown on him. With his curious and childish personality, Harry had been a refreshing addition to the otherwise dim and serious atmosphere that normally ruled in the Department of Mysteries.

"So you're saying that your so called "Group" wants to meet with me later this week to discuss Harry's future living arrangements?" Dumbledore asked as soon as the initial relief over the revealance about Harry's well being had worn off.

"That is correct, headmaster." Marco replied and pushed himself off the edge and landed on the floor in front of the two professors. "We feel that cooperation from both parties would be more beneficial to both of us, instead of some stupid tug-off war about who will get to care for Harry. Not to mention it will spare Harry a lot of discomfort."

Dumbledore nodded. He could definetely buy that trail of thought, but despite that he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. There was just something about this "Group" that seemed off to him. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, but after 10 years of worrying about Harry, that wasn't really strange, considering that these were the people who had taken him away.

"I got just one question though: Why did you keep Harry hidden for so long? I can understand that you took him away when his Uncle was trying to just dump him off somewhere, but why keep him a secret?" Dumbledore asked.

Sighing for what had to be the 100th time since he entered the office, Marco turned to look directly at Professor Dumbledore with his deep, piercing blue eyes.

"Well, for starters let me ask you this: if we had made it public knowledge that we had Harry Potter in our care, what would you have done?" he said and looked pointedly at the Professor, knowing full well how the Headmaster would've acted if he had gotten to know that Harry was in their care.

Dumbledore actually felt himself flinch slightly as he thought about it. If he had gotten to know who had Harry in their care, he would've gone to great lenghts to get the boy back, no doubt. By keeping him a secret from society, The Group had made sure that no one interfered with Harry's upbringing, or with them. And what was worse, he could definetely see himself doing the same thing if he had been in there spot. Come to think of it, that was exactly what he had been trying to do by placing Harry in care with the Dursleys; to ensure that no one else could get their hands on him.

"See? I think that answers that question pretty switftly." Marco said as he reached up to pull up his hood again, preparing to leave. "I will be seeing you again shortly, Professor. If you intend to go at the meetng, be sure to stay in your office at 18.00 this friday evening. Until then, you better take good care of Harry."

He said the last part with surprising force behind his voice, leaving no room for argument and letting Dumbledore know exactly how pissed off he would be if it came to his knowledge that Harry didn't enjoy his stay at Hogwarts.

Having said what he came for, Marco took a deep breath and allowed flames to spread across his body as he flamed away. Dumbledore opened his mouth to ask something, but Marco was gone before he could even utter a word. When the flames had died down, both he and Professor McGonagall was left staring at the spot where the black cloaked man had been standing in disbelief.

**-HP-**

Hermione Granger knew that she was different. For as long as she could remember, she had been an outcast from the rest of her age group. She had never really had any friends and people had always thought of her as "weird" or "scary" because of the strange things that seemed to happen around her all the time. When she was younger, her reaction to this had been to always make sure to have something to do, something to read. She distanced herself from the rest of her class and instead focused on her studies. In return, she had become the by far most intelligent child in her school, even outmatching some of the older students, but that only served to drive her further away from other children.

And then, just a while back there had arrived a letter that explained all these strange things that seemed to happen around her. Hermione was a witch, as in a really magical witch who could perform magic. That had explained a lot, like how she had accidently sent her studybook flying out the window when she sneezed or how she had made her cat fly around the room when it had scared her.

This had opened up a whole new world to Hermione, who had jumped at the idea of studying magic, to learn how to control her powers and learn of things that shouldn't be logically possible, like transforming sticks into needles and cups into toads. It all had seemed so surreal to her, even after she had gotten her letter from Hogwarts, but now that she was actually sitting at the train she couldn't doubt it anymore. She was really going there, to learn all those things and be with people that were more like her. However, as she sat in her compartment staring out the window at the landscape that was rushing by, something was becoming painfully obvious to her, no matter how much she tried to deny it.

She was still alone.

After years of not making any friends, Hermione had no idea how to make any new friends and had decided to pick a compartment for herself at the Hogwarts express, hoping that maybe someone would drop by and ask to sit with her. But no one came by and asked, so she just sat there alone, looking out the window. Occasionally, she had stuck her head out into the corridor on the train to see if there was anyone around her age there, but it would seem like most students her age preferred to stay in their own compartments.

Looking out the window, Hermione sighed. Had she really thought she would just get some friends because she would be close to people that were like her? She was still different, still that bookworm that didn't speak to anyone. It didn't matter if she was among magical people or muggles, the non-magical people, she was still her, still the same Hermione Granger who had stood out from the crowd for being a notorious bookworm. Sure, she got praised by adults for being such a good student but that wasn't nearly good enough to make up for the lack of social interraction or friendship.

'_Why am I even bothering?' _she thought to herself sadly. '_I'm still the same, magical or not, so why did I even think that anything would change?'_

To her surprise however, just as she thought it the door to her compartment swung open. She turned around quickly and found that a young boy, about her age, was standing in the doorway, fidgeting nervously with his hands. He had a very round face and dark hair and his eyes told her that he was very nervous about coming in here.

"Uhm, excuse me miss, but you don't happen to have seen a toad around here?" he asked with an almost scared voice, nervousity dripping from his tone like waterdrops from a damp ceiling.

Unfortunately, Hermione hadn't seen anything even remotely toad-like and shook her head. When the boy saw her shake her head, he lowered his head and mumbled a "Sorry for bothering you" before he left the compartment. Hermione stared after him for a moment. Was it something she had said? She hadn't meant to be mean or anything, but she hadn't seen his toad.

Shaking her head, she mentally reprimanded herself. Just a moment ago, she had been hoping someone would come in here so she could make some friends and now that someone had been in here, she had just sat there and shaken her head! Not one to let something she wanted just slip away, Hermione stood up and followed the boy out of her compartment.

"Wait!" she called and the boy froze in his tracks. He hadn't gotten far from the compartment. "Sorry, I haven't seen your toad, but I can help you look for it. Would that be alright?"

The boy turned around and just stared at her as if he couldn't believe his ears.

"I-if you really want to, I wouldn't mind." he said, his voice betraying the feeling of fear that she was just making fun of him.

Hermione knew that fear all too well. She had felt it herself many times and knew how much it could hurt if someone pretended to be friendly only to make fun of you at the first best opportunity, so she did her best to put on a friendly smile that she hoped didn't look too strain.

"No problem. I've got nothing better to do." '_Except reading books and preparing for term... NO! Don't think like that Hermione!'_ "My name is Hermione Granger! What's yours?"

"Uhm, I'm Neville. Neville Longbottom." the boy answered hesistantly.

"Alright, Neville." Hermione said. "I guess you have already checked the compartments in the direction you came from?"

Neville nodded, still staring at Hermione as if he couldn't believe she was actually there.

"Good, then we'll do it like this. I'll check the compartments to the right in the corridor and you'll check the ones your the left. We'll save a lot of time that way."

When Neville nodded in acceptance, Hermione gave him a smile, feeling a warmth spreading through her chest. She knew it was too early to call Neville her friend, but at least he seemed willing to actually become her friend and that was definetely a step up from the kids at her primary school that didn't even want to talk to her. Agreeing to meet up back in her compartment as soon as they had done their route, Hermione went in search of the missing toad, whom Neville told her was named Trevor.

She went from compartment to compartment, asking if someone had seen Neville's toad but received negatives wherever she went and some of the older students were staring at her strangely, but not nescesarily in a bad way. Something she did notice was that the ones that had the mark that resembled a snake somewhere on their person, usually through a pin that was attached to their clothing, tended to be unfriendly. If she recalled it correctly, the mark of the snake belonged to one of the Four Houses at Hogwarts, the Slytherin House.

As she thought about this, trying to remember what she had read about Slytherin, she came across a compartment that contained 2 people, 2 boys to be exact, both her age. One of them had very distinct red hair and a lot of freckles on his face, while the other was the complete opposite, with raven black hair and extremely pale skin. They seemed to be in a heated discussion about something and Hermione found herself hesistant to open the door but figuring that it would only take a minute to ask, she opened the door, immediately calling both boys attention to her.

"Excuse me, but have you seen a toad around here somewhere? A boy named Neville have lost one." she asked.

The red haired boy grumbled something incoherable and turned away from her, muttering something about "interrupting". Hermione frowned and wrinkled her nose slightly at the boy's disrespectful behavior, but didn't comment on it, instead turning towards the raven haired boy with the pale skin.

"No, we haven't seen a toad, sorry. And I'm sorry about Ron, I don't know why he is acting this way." he said, rising from his seat. "I can help you look though, if you want?"

Hearing this, not to mention that the raven haired boy had shown a lot more respect than his friend, Hermione's face lit up.

"That would be really nice if you would! I'm Hermione Granger by the way! What's your name?"

At this however, the raven haired boy froze slightly and seemed to consider something carefully. Hermione's smile faltered slightly. Had she said something wrong? Had she been too forthcoming? Now that she thought about it, maybe she had been a little pushy when she told him her full name and asked him to do the same? Perhaps just first names would've been a better start?

"Harry." the boy said finally. "Harry Potter."

* * *

**A/N: **_Aaaand... cut! There we go, the second chapter of Prodigy, ended with Harry meeting Hermione, told from Hermione's POV! I always found it interesting that Hermione seemed to know Neville somehow before she met Harry and Ron. Obviously, they didn't really know each other, but she was nice enough to help Neville search for Trevor and that didn't really go well over with the portrayal of her we were treated to when she first met Harry and Ron._

_Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter! **Fun Fact** that I didn't think of until I was writing the scene is that Ginny was in fact the first Weasley to be named in the book, in the very same scene that I wrote in this chapter when Molly tells her to be quiet. I did change it slightly, since in perspective it made no sense to me that Molly asked what platform they were supposed to find when she have 6 sons that have all gone to Hogwarts from that same platform. _

_Now, if you liked the story and haven't done it already, make sure to smash the hell out of those nice little buttons down below saying "Follow" and "Favourite", and if you got something to say about the chapter or just want to tell me you liked it, it only takes about 5 min maximum to write a review. And don't forget to **vote for Harry's house!** Until next time guys! _


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